What I would do in that situation?
==================================

Wednesday 13 May 2009 12:18

I would handle it like I've really thought
everything through and it would appear I was
following a script written for just that exact
situation, with me in a brave and heroic role. My
single goal in life would be to get the most out of
that situation, risking the end of existence for
the sole purpose of performing in the most optimal
and impressive way in that situation. My entire
universe would be confined to that situation you
described based on your somewhat biased and limited
knowledge of it and the abstract means used to
communicate the description.

Murphy's law will be reversed. Every other person's
actions will be rational so I can predict and
anticipate their behavior with mathematical
precision, and you'd have to agree that's realistic
because you're also rational. Everything I need
will be there, and everything I don't won't. I
won't be affected by altered levels of sleep
deprivation, adrenaline, alcohol or hormones. Even
with someone holding a gun to my head I would be
able to choose to tell the truth or lie so
convincingly, I wonder how I won't pull that off in
the court case that will obviously follow this
situation. Lighting and acoustics in the situation
you mentioned will be perfect, since you didn't
bother to describe them. There won't be any mass
psychological issues making me behave in the
pathetic way everybody else does because you asked
what I would do in that situation, and not them.

But in real life situations don't start with a
"Loading..." screen or end with "Cut!".

There's a difference between what you'd think you
would do in a certain situation and how you'd
behave in an uncertain chain of events that could
at some point more or less resemble that situation
when viewed from a specific angle. Most likely you
wouldn't even recognize the situation until it's to
late, there won't be time to act rational for
anyone, there's a whole environment affecting every
sense and you'd be glad to survive, never mind
being brave or heroic.

But hell, this is the internet. Let's keep things
honest and fake. I hate nerds that treat the law as
some kind of source code for the behavior of
everything outside their basement and think they
know what's going on at compile time.

by Roland van Ipenburg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ipenburg/blog/posts/dull/2009/05/13/what-i-would-do-in-that-situation/